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Day 2: Istanbul By Foot We had our first Turkish breakfast at the Sunlife Hotel. A cold collation, consisting of wonderful bread, interesting sliced meats, olives, ripe tomatos bursting with flavour, orange and pomegranate juices, and tea and coffee. Not what I had expected, but very pleasant. This proved to be standard breakfast fare in almost all our hotels. After breakfast, we met Sebnem, our Turkish tour guide. Sebnem was about 25, had very good English, and knew her job very well. She did a marvellous job of organising us around Turkey. Once we were on the road, her skills became very evident. The Hippodrome First stop for the day was the Hippodrome. Yesterday we wandered through it, not really looking at the history, just getting familiar with things and taking the air. Today was our formal introduction to it. It was built in 198 AD by the Emperor Septimius Severus, when Istanbul was Byzantium. A few years later in 324 AD, the Emperor Constantine decided to make Byzantium the eastern Roman capital. He changed the name of the city, modestly naming it Constantinopolis after himself, and he refurbished the city. He built great walls around the city, and many of these can still be seen in Istanbul. There was a recent upkeep programme and the walls were being maintained and rebuilt and rejoined, but we were told that the cost of this had become a burden and it had stopped. Constantine also built a palace for himself, and he enhanced the Hippodrome. As the Hippdrome was the popular centre of life in the city, as well as the scene of imperial public appearances, the Emperors and Sultans enhanced and beautified the Hippodrome, trying to outdo their predecessors. Sadly, not much has survived. Earthquakes, the Crusades, wars, all took their toll. The races were extremely important to the people of Constantinople. The racing teams were known by their colours, and if you followed one team and its colour, then you were pretty sure to be allied to the political party associated with that team. Sport and politics were closely entwined. Riots were common-place, and often erupted during the races. The most famous was the Nike Riot of 532 AD, when 30,000 rioters were killed. Today, all that is left is the floor plan, a few ruins, and a few monuments. As it was Monday, the pedlars were out in force, trying to flog us "pure silk" scarves, small carpets, tourist books of Turkey and Istanbul, postcards, shoeshines, and small bric-a-brac. One of the disturbing things was seeing boys and girls of very young age on the streets selling these things, while their parents sat on the sidelines and watched and waited. Jenny said that the pedlars had steadily got more numerous, as the Turks who lived in the East were unsettled by problems with the Kurds, and they migrated to Istanbul, couldn't find jobs, and ended up trying to sell stuff to tourists. The children did their primary schooling, but left as soon as they could so they could earn money for the family, and promptly forgot the schooling they had acquired. Sebnem said that the law was in the process of being changed to keep children at school longer. The first monument that Sebnem led us to, was the Obelix of Theodosius. It was carved in Egypt about 1500 BC, which makes it about 3,500 years old. According to the hieroglyphs, it was erected in Heliopolis (now a suburb of Cairo) to commemorate the victories of Thutmose III (1504-1450 BC). The Byzantine Emperor, Theodosius, had it brought from Egypt to Constantinople in 390 AD. Next were the remains of the Serpent Column of Delphi. When it was made in 478 BC, it was much taller than this and had three serpent's heads on the top. It was originally cast to commemorate a victory of the Hellenic confederation over the Persians. It stood in front of the temple of Apollo at Delphi, until 330 AD when the Emperor Constantine the Great brought it to Constantinople, his new capital city. The Column survived intact until the 18th century, when the serpent's heads were removed. One upper jaw is all that is left, on display in the Archaelogical Museum. The Blue Mosque We walked up to the Blue Mosque. It looked largish on the outside but when we got inside, we realised just how huge it is. To get in, we had to take our shoes off. There were lots of plastic bags to put our shoes in, so we could take them with us. It was more efficient that way, the flow of people was higher. No scarves required for the women, despite the claims of the pedlars with scarves for sale. The Blue Mosque was built between 1606 and 1616, by Sultan Ahmet I. He wanted to build a mosque that would surpass Justinian's effort with the Aya Sofya, which had been built a thousand years earlier. He did a pretty good job and the Blue Mosque is claimed to be the most magnificent mosque of all time. It has 6 minarets, more than any other. These set off the main dome, and the four flanking semi-domes. Inside it is huge, and magnificent. Prayer mats as far as the eye can see, with room for a vast number of people. But as soon as you are inside, your eyes start to rise involuntarily. The walls are finished with blue tiles from Iznik, and the colour and patterns are superb. And your eyes keep rising up to the semi-domes, and then up to the main dome. This is so high and such a magnificent sight. A humbling experience to see such a magnificent building, and realise that it's 400 years old. Aya Sofya We had intended visiting the Aya Sofya today, but we discovered that it was closed on Mondays. So all we did was look at it from a distance. We visited it later. Roman Cistern We walked back past the Hippodrome, through the throngs of pedlars again, and I heard a new twist. One of them was shouting about his postcards, that they carried a "lifetime guarantee". I was accosted by a small child. His father was conmfortably sitting over by a wall, and the son was out touting for business from the kind-hearted and gullible tourists. He was selling little wooden tops. Anne and carolyn kept telling him he should be in school, and this was a line they used on all begging and peddling children throughout Turkey. He followed us around a bit, and I kept asking about the price of the tops. By the time we were ready to leave the Hippodrome, the price had dropped considerably. When we got to the corner and were about to descend into the cistern, he made a final offer, and I accepted and bought three little wooden tops for 100,000 Turkish lira. Less than a dollar. I intend to give some away as Christmas presents, but I'm keeping one for myself. Then we decended into the underground water cistern. It was cool and damp. It had been part of the Roman water supply for the city, like the Sarnic Restaurant of the night before. Justinian had built it in 532 AD, and he built it big. The roof was supported by 336 columns, and as they had never expected anyone to visit it, they built it with bits and pieces and columns from other buildings, not really caring how they looked. For example, the Medusa head is upside down. There were several columns of tears, and they were conspicuously highlighted. It's quite a large area, 70 meters by 140 meters, and walkways have been constructed above the water level so you can walk around it. When we visited, workmen were constructing a platform for a fashion parade. There was even a platform for a cafe. Topkapi Palace We walked back to the Sunlife Hotel and met Mustafa and our bus. We were then driven up to the Topkapi Palace where we were going to have lunch. The Topkapi Palace was the residence of the Sultans for about 300 years, from the 15th to 19th centuries. Mehmet the Conqueror built the first palace in 1453, on the site of earlier Greek and Roman ruins. Until Mahmut II, who died in 1839, the Sultans lived in and ruled from the Topkapi Palace. After him, the Sultans preferred to live in newer European style palaces built on the Bosphorus. When we got off the bus, we still had a long walk up to the entrance. It was eqipped with a metal detector. We had a quick look round, but Sebnem hustled us off to the restaurant. It was tucked down on the side of the hill with a marvellous view of the sea and the city. Lunch was pretty good. We were really tightly packed in, but the food was very good. After lunch, we climbed back up from the restaurant and looked out across. The most interesting part was to see the city on either side of the Bosphorus Strait and realise that on the left was the continent of Europe, and on the right was the continent of Asia. This was where the continents met. Then we got to see the Palace in detail. We wandered around to the area overlooking the harem walkway. This was where the harem ladies would walk and display, and the Sultan would stand above and choose his partner for the night. The group in the group photo is standing where the Sultan would choose. We didn't get to do the extra Harem tour, as we were running out of time. We saw most of the palace, and were amazed at the wealth displayed, especially the quantity and size of the gold and jewels of the Imperial Court. There didn't look to be much security present, and Jenny told us that they had recently discovered that the alarm system had not been working for the last seven years. They had bigger emeralds and rubies than any I had ever heard of, just hanging on the walls. It would have been the work of moments to whip them down and into a bag. Anne was interested in the displays housed in the Palace kitchens. The size of the kitchens particularly impressed me, being much larger than our entire house. The display housed an exquisite collection of crystal, silver and Chinese porcelain. One pavilion, the Pavilion of the Holy Mantle, contained relics of the prophet Mohammed. Now call me a sceptic if you must, but there were certainly a lot of relics there, including footprints of wildly varying size (even gigantic), bits of his hair and beard, and items he used in his daily life. It reminded me very much of the proliferation of pieces of the True Cross. Another pavilion housed many old Korans, all beautifully hand drawn and illustrated, often by the Sultans themselves. Also on display were the ornate signatures of the Sultans. I was particularly interested in this, and later we bought a book with many examples of the Korans and signatures. This was where Sebnem discovered that Australian tourists are not as other tourists. I watched a group of German tourists and their guide. The guide would move to the next site to view and he would raise his hand and blow a whistle. The plump German hausfraus would run up and stand beside him panting, and the rest of the group would follow and all would stand still while he spoke his spiel. Not us. Sebnem would be describing something, and half would be standing and listening to her, a few would be ahead looking at the next thing, a few would be behind looking at the previous thing in depth, and a few would have completely disappeared. She seemed to get more disoriented as the afternoon wore on. When most of us had seen everything and were waiting to go, a few stragglers were missing and Sebnem got quite flustered running around and trying to find them. We were eventually all rounded up, and we moved off to the bus. Historical Awe By the end of the day, I was overwhelmed by the sights we had seen. We had seen buildings and ruins that were thousands of years old. Huge sophisticated buildings that were five or six hundred years old. Everywhere we walked in the city, there was something ancient. Ancient fountains springing unexpected from the walls. Carvings and mosaics in odd courtyards. Statues in corners. Istanbul was so full of history and culture that at times, I would find myself standing still on corners, feeling insignificant and young and feeling weighed down with the centuries in evidence around me. When I visited Korea in 1989, I remember standing on a street corner, looking around at the very foreign sights and feeling disoriented and strange. The feeling in Istanbul wasn't like that. I felt comfortable, maybe because I was familiar with the history and the buildings from my reading, but I felt tiny and insignificant against the thousands of years of life that had been before me. Grand Covered Bazaar The bus left us at the entrance of the Bazaar. Because we had been so remiss in getting out of the Topkapi Palace, we only had about a half an hour to look through the bazaar before it closed. So we whizzed through. There was a huge amount of repetition. Carpets, and leather jackets, and bric-a-brac, and jewellery, and herbs, spices and teas. It all looked the same. We wandered up and down the aisles, looking and fending off the spruikers. They were very insistent and always had good bargains to drag us off to. One guy stopped us and said "Someone told me that you are looking for a carpet.". It was a pretty good opening line, we thought, but we insisted that we didn't want a carpet, we wanted water. After a while, he gave in and directed us to a small shop selling water. That's all we bought. Anne was very interested in the displays of herbs and spices. The variety was huge. We didn't buy anything here, because tomorrow we were going to the Egyptian Bazaar, and they were supposed to have an even greater variety of herbs and spices and teas. The Grand Covered Bazaar has a fiery history. The first version was built in 1461 by Sultan Mehmet II. It was built of wood. This suffered a number of fires, until in 1984, it was reconstructed. Fires still happened, the last being 1954. This was where Richard started the first of the long-term inside-jokes of the tour. He wandered around with Jenny, and whenever she started to look at things, he would come up with the refrain "You don't need one. You've probably got one at home already. You don't want it. Put it back.". He was probably responsible for stopping quite a few purchases of un-needed junk. Jenny seemed to appreciate it, as did some of the others who crossed paths and were given the same lecture. From that time on, whenever the group browsed at any market or stall, you could always here above the group's gasps of desire, Richard's refrain "You don't need one." Haggling was a big thing in the Bazaar. It was a big thing everywhere. I hate haggling, and I'm not very good at it. I suppose the two go hand in hand. Bronwyn was a very good haggler and she got all the thjings she wanted at very good prices. I think a lot of it is in knowing what you want, what it costs back home, and what you are prepared to pay for it. A lot of the time I was merely curious about prices, and I would ask how much, and the stall-holder would take that as an opening gambit in a hanggling campaign. I wanted to know simply how much, and then I wanted to move on. So they got upset because I wouldn't join in the haggling game, and I got irritated because I couldn't get the information I wanted and just move on in peace. One thing I particularly hated was asking how much an item was, and being asked back "How much do you want to pay?" After a few times of this, I would quote a ludicrously low amount, they would get visibly irritated and start trying to move the price up to reasonable levels, and I would move on. They would run behind making more and more offers and I wouyld ignore them. I was only window shopping, and just wanted to know how much things were. I hate haggling, and I hate cultures where haggling is a way of life. We found our way out of the maze, and back to the bus, and it took a torturous and hilly route back to the hotel. The Nightlife The evening meal was up to us that night. Some opted for the restaurant at the Sunlife Hotel, but we (me, Anne, Bron, Ene and Richard) opted to wander down the main street and fend for ourselves. We ended up back at the Vitamin Restaurant and had a big meal. Bron and Ene tried the red wine, and it was rough as guts. I helped them finish the second bottle, and it provided a really savage hangover next morning. I tried the baklava this time, but wasn't really fond of the Turkish variety. In Australia, it's usually made with honey, so has a strong flavour. The Turkish variety was made with sugar water. This made it lighter, and less sticky. Some of the others on the tour preferred baklava this way, but I didn't. I prefer the heavier, stickier, honey version that I am used to. We did some more wandering up and down the street, bought a selection of real Turkish Delight. Anne won't eat what passes for Turkish Delight in Australia, only eating the real product in Turkey. I had been sceptical of this in the past, but now that I had a chance to taste the real thing, I can understand why she rejects the non-authentic variety. My favorite was the one with pistachio nut embedded. Back to the Sunlife Hotel, where we all gathered in our room for a chat, over a bottle of Wolf Blass cab sav. The party broke up late, and I fell into a drunken slumber. I still woke up at 5:00am, still attuned to time somewhere else in the world.